Sims 3: The Deans (part 16)

The flight to France is long and tiring.  Tania’s mood drops after the first few hours on the plane.  However, her energy is revived once they arrive in France and the plane is low enough for her to snap a few photos.

Tania can barely contain her excitement as she is exposed to one breathtaking view after another.

Tania stands in front of her hotel jet lagged and exhausted, but is not ready to call it a day.  There is too much to see.  Besides that, she is scheduled to meet up with her French contact right away.

She was instructed to check the bulletin board outside of her hotel for contact information on Jean Luc Pivert, the gentleman she’s supposed to be meeting with here in France.

Attached to the board are directions and a crudely drawn map. Tania grabs them both and sets off.

Tania spots Monsieur Pivert standing in the middle of a gorgeous grassy area.

She stops for a moment to admire the beautiful view.  She’s tempted to grab her camera and snap some pictures right then and there, but seeing that Monsieur Pivert is waiting for her, she figured it would be rude.

Tania approaches him.  He begins speaking rapidly in French.

Tania is concerned.  She attempts to mentally access information from her old high school French class, “Je…ne peux pas…pu…parler français. Parlez…vu…vous Anglais? “   She says, trying to inform him that she doesn’t speak French and asking if he speaks English.  She’s sure that she’s destroying the pronunciation.

“Non,” he answers. He then hands her a note with her assignment, written in English.

Tania is relieved that the note is in English, if only I spent more time learning French in school, she thinks to herself.

Monsieur Pivert walks away satisfied that he’s made sure that she received her assignment, but disappointed that she doesn’t know the language.

Tania hops into her rental car and heads toward her first assignment.  The National Simographic editors want a few pictures of the local French nectary.

Tania arrives and snaps a few pictures of the nectary.  She glances at the grape vines in the field next to the nectary.  She should take a few pictures of those, but the thought of sampling nectar is in the forefront of her mind.

The Nectary offers all the free samples that one can drink.  This appeals to Tania very much.  She grabs a bottle with an appetizing combination of grapes and pours some into glasses.

The aroma is beyond tantalizing. Her taste buds await the sweet nectar.

Tania’s first sip is amazing.  She takes time to allow the nectar to simmer in her mouth before allowing it to escape down her throat. 

She decides to take a seat.  She doesn’t want to waste energy by standing.  She wants all of her energy going toward the enjoyment of the nectar.

The nectar is almost as pleasing as her first woo-hoo with Antwain; two times better than the drink she enjoyed at the bar the night before.

The pleasure is almost overwhelming.  In the back of her mind, Tania knows that something this pleasing cannot be good for her, but the thought is quickly snubbed away by desire.

Each new sips brings her closer to intoxication, yet she remains too far.  She would love to give in to the feeling, but she knows that she has a lot of work to do with her time here in France and drunkenness has no place.

Tania is soon joined by the older gentlemen that she spotted earlier.

“Be careful,” he warns in a pleasing French accent, “there are a few fellows here that would love to take advantage of a gorgeous woman like you who knows how to enjoy a fine glass of nectar.”

Tania takes it as a compliment, not a warning.  “Thank you,” she says slightly blushing.

“Are you here for business or pleasure?” The French gentleman asks.

 
“Mostly business,” Tania answers suddenly uncomfortable; not sure how much info she should be giving this stranger. “Well nice to meet you.  I have to go.”

Tania walks to the French market to take more photos and look around.  She spots Jean Luc Pivert, who she met with earlier and immediately becomes a little embarrassed that she cannot communicate with him.

The French market is quaint and charming.  Tania takes as many shots as possible, before her growling stomach tells her that it’s time to grab a bite to eat.

Not one to be very experimental with cuisine, Tania chooses a meal that sounds safe – an olive platter.

It looks pretty appetizing…

…so Tania sits down and digs in.

As she takes bite after bite, her minds wonders to Antwain.  Initially she was happy that he seemed to be OK with her flying to France, but now that she has time alone to think…she’s pretty sure that she’s made an error in thinking that she had his complete approval.

 

Click here for more of the Deans  

Sims 3 Creating a Family Tree

I've been asked to give instruction on the process of creating a family tree for Sims 3 families.  My family trees are created using Microsoft Office Publisher 2003.  I hope this tutorial is clear & helpful! Please note, that I do not go into every detail of using Publisher.  This tutorial is best for those who are at least minimally familiar with Publisher.

Step 1 - Make sure to have a good picture of your Sims.  If you can, take a picture of your Sim while they are in CAS (or you can change their appearance in the mirror and take a picture of them there).  To take a picture of your Sim, just hit the "C" key on your keyboard. The picture will be found in Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 3 in the  folder.

Here's a picture of Tania Dean after clicking a mirror & changing her appearance.

If your Sims has a boyfriend/girlfirend or fiance that is not a part of your immediate household, you will have to take an in game picture of them (unless you are using a mod).  Just try to get a clear shot.

Here's an in game picture of Antwain, Tania's boyfriend

Step 2 - Open up the picture in your favorite photo editing program and crop it to your liking:

Here's the same picture of Tania, cropped to eliminate any excess background

Step 3 - Once you have pictures of everyone that you want to include in your family tree, now it's time to create the family tree. I like to use Microsoft Publisher  (Blank Print Document) for this process, but you may be able to use other programs that allow you to easily create boxes and add pictures.  These are the tools in Publisher that you'll need:

This is what the left side of my Publisher program looks like when I open it.  I am using Microsoft Office Publisher 2003.

Here's my completed Ward Family tree:

To create this simple family tree, I used the Text Box tool in Publisher and added the family name:

Next, I added pictures of Miles and Sephora.  To add pictures in Publisher, you go to Insert, choose Picture and choose From File.  Find the pictures that you want to use, size them and place them where you want them to go.  After adding Miles & Sephora's pictures, I added Text Boxes under the picture and added their names:

Now, I want to signify that Miles & Sephora are married.  I add another box to connect the two of them:

Right now the box is covering up their names and doesn't look right.  To remedy that, I right click the newly added box, choose Order, and choose Send to Back.

Now the box is where you want it to be, but there is an ugly black line between Miles & Sephora's name.  To get rid of it, create another box.

 Right now the box looks terrible.  Right click the box, choose Format AutoShape and the Format AutoShape box will pop up, like this:

Under Fill, go to Color and choose White.  Under Line, go Color and once again choose White as shown by the red arrows below:

 Now the box will be white, but it still does not look right:

Simply right click the box, choose Order, and choose Send Backward. If the box is not completely behind your pictures and name boxes, then right click the pictures and name boxes, choose Order and Bring to Front.  The end result should be this:

You want the white box to be below the pictures & name boxes, but above the ugly black line that you want to hide.

 This is a simple family tree.  If your two Sims have a child as Miles & Sephora later did, you add the child by adding a line:

Then add the child's picture and a Text Box for their name:

For more complicated family trees, you can change the colors of each connected line to indicate marriages, boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, engagements and adoptions.  You can also change the lines to dashed lines, under the Format AutoShape box.  I use dashed lines to indicate divorces or breakups.

To change the thickness of your lines or shapes, go to Weight:

Here is one of my more complicated family trees, The Dean Family:

Please note the Key at the side of the family tree.  The key helps your readers understand what the different color lines and dashes mean on your family tree.  I also like to indicate what members are deceased on my family trees.  To create the Key, I use a Text Box.  I then add lines to the Key box, next to the appropriate label.  (See the red arrow below, showing that lines are added to the Key box.)

The nice thing about using Publisher to create your family trees is that they are easily altered to add new family members!  Make sure you save your family tree Publisher file for this purpose!

That's about it. Please leave feedback below to let me know if these instructions are clear and whether or not you were able to follow along.  I will adjust these instructions based on the feedback I get in the comment area.  Thanks!

Here are links to all of my current family trees for your reference:
The Pratt Family of Sunset Valley (This is a very complicated family tree that goes back 5 generations. I did not have good pictures of the earlier generations, so I just used what I had)

The Dean Family of Riverview (Again, I did not have good pictures of the earlier generations, so I had to use what I had - 3 generations)

The Price Family of Twinbrook (Slightly more complicated - 2 generations)

The Ward Family of Barnacle Bay (Simple family tree - 2 generations)

The Hamilton/Boyd Household (Simple family tree - 1 generation)